And as for making amends, what amends could now be made; He only wanted
to know that Nina was alive--and could forgive.
As he sat by himself in the still watches of the night, plunged in
silent reverie, strange fancies began to fill his brain. He recalled
stories in which he had read of persons separated by great distances
communicating with each other by some species of spiritual telegraphy;
and a conviction took possession of him that now, if ever--now as the
old year was about to go out and the new year come in--he could call to
Nina across the unknown void that lay between them, and that she would
hear and perchance respond. Surely, on New-Year's Eve, Nina would be
thinking of her friends in London; and, if their earnest and anxious
thoughts could but meet her half-way, might there not be some sudden
understanding, some recognition, some glad assurance that all was well?
This wild fancy so grew upon him that when the last day of the year
arrived it had become a fixed belief; and yet it was with a haunting
sense of dread--a dread of he knew not what--that he looked forward to
the stroke of twelve.
He got through his performance that night as if he were in a dream, and
hurried home; it was not far from midnight when he arrived.
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